"Many entities acting out of very different, self-interested motives but the end result is a conspiracy. Multiple actors working together, with tight coordination even if not strict command and control, towards a common goal." (<a href="http://www.correntewire.com/emergent_properties_and_criminal_conspiracie...)
In Part One, I asked whether the Carmen Reinhart/Kenneth Rogoff study and book didn’t show that, on average, nations experiencing debt-to-GDP ratios above 90% had negative rates of economic growth? And I said the answer to the question was “no.” But I didn’t explain why that was true. Read below the fold...
The underlying rationale for “a Grand Bargain” and the President’s deficit reduction budget including cuts to both Social Security (SS) and Medicare and many valuable discretionary programs, apart from the pragmatic justification, that he may be able to complete such a bargain with the Republicans and blue dog Democrats in Congress, is that the fiscal health of the United States requires that we can’t keep running annual deficits of the size we’ve been running. Why? Read below the fold...
I suppose these remarks could be considered not particularly constructive, but deserving of "banning?"
The one about the New Mexico Democrats was in response to Johnson bragging that 2/3's of the Democrats in New Mexico voted for him (for Governor). That was after he expounded on being the equivalent of 'a severe fiscal conservative.'
The second Tweet observes that "it took a Russian network to present the debate,." I thought that Tweet was fairly innocuous.
In my defense, I just figured out tonight how to use a "hash tag" to participate in a live Twitter feed. Guess I'd better learn to keep my sarcasm to myself. LOL! Read below the fold...
My "Dismal Science" diet comes from a wide variety of sources. As our corrupt national political establishment and discredited media organs begin to focus on post-election Catfood Commission politics, it's instructive to see how different economists read the writing on the wall, and come to a variety of conclusions. In this case I'd like to highlight the observations of Dr. Richard D. Wolff, who appears to come to a similar conclusion to the one I derived in my previous post about how the Grand Bargain is a shell game calculated to drain the public funds for private purposes (The Grandest Bargain Ever, Explained). Read below the fold...
...well, probably not. But this certainly caught my eye.
The Republican National Committee hosted a conference call on Friday morning, with Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) criticizing the Supreme Court's decision and vowing to continue to oppose Obamacare.
So an insider has unceremoniously dumped a number of internal documents from the Heartland Institute, a Koch front group. And it's a doozy. People are making a fuss over the "controversy" based climate denialism, but that's so obvious, it's not what intrigued me. Read below the fold...
Thursday kick-off was awesome, with around 2000 at City Hall during the busy hour. Austin police not the NYPD, at this point anyway. This afternoon they offered to give us a traffic lane to march to BOA if we had at least 200 people involved. An hour later 600 people marched and the APD facilitated. Something like $60K removed from BOA before they shut their doors. I'm pretty sure we'll be back later.
Some unfortunate, ugly behavior at the GA tonight when things got temporarily off track, but the parties initially in conflict ended up in dialog and understanding each to be aligned on goals and beliefs, but not necessarily timing. Not only peace, but much understanding prevailed. Mistakes were made but owned up to and grieved. Read below the fold...
Disgraced Democratic Politicians Who Have Permanently Discredited Themselves Because they Advocate the Dismantling of Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, or Other Programs that Benefit 98 Percent of Their Constituents.
Part I of a Running Series: Emanuel Cleaver Edition
Why on earth should anyone in Missouri’s Fifth Congressional District who is under the age of fifty-five ever vote for this man, ever again?
Maybe it's just me, but something seems hinky at NYTimes.com. Well, not just them; I haven't caught a single mention of Sean Hoare's conveniently timed death in the American media.
When other nations' governments go off track, their people do something about it. In Tunisia and Egypt people have nonviolently claimed power in a way that has inspired Americans in Wisconsin and other states, as well as the people of Spain and the rest of the world.
Washington, D.C., is the weakest point in our democracy, without which state-level reform cannot succeed. Most Americans want our wars ended, our corporations and billionaires taxed, and our rights expanded rather than curtailed. We want our money invested in jobs and green energy, not a global military that can't stop itself. Our government in Washington goes in the opposite direction, opposing popular will on these major issues, regardless of personality or party. Read below the fold...
After the killing of Bin Laden, there have been a lot of questions about how much the Pakistani government knew about the situation. One thing to keep in mind is that Pakistan's political environment is riven with factions, each with its own agenda and armed supporters. Read below the fold...
I don't really mean to single out Gallup here. Well, I guess I do; but they're certainly not the only guilty party in the polling industry of doing what I'm about to rail against. Let's begin by stipulating that public polls cannot escape ideological and selection biases in how they frame questions and alternative closed end response choices. Nevertheless, if poll results are to be considered even minimally descriptive of public opinion, they must make a concerted effort to include multiple frames and not exclude response choices that go beyond the dominant ideology. After all what good are polls that channel opinion in pre-determined directions compared to those that allow respondents to express their own tendencies? Read below the fold...
As the United States Government approaches “running of money” to pay its bills, news articles and pronouncements by politicians about the debt ceiling dispute focus on several things. First, they talk about the dire consequences of defaulting on our obligations. Second, they talk about the need for spending cuts that will put us on a long-term path to balancing the budget, getting a Government surplus, and improving the debt-to-GDP ratio. Third, they talk about the debt ceiling preventing the Government from issuing further debt instruments to “fund” paying for its obligations. Read below the fold...
